Making European Research Stronger

The Guild and other academic associations give a unified voice
to Europe's research community

The European Framework Research Programme is one of the major success stories of the European Project. It promotes scientific excellence, international cooperation and research cohesion at a scale unmatched by any other programme in the world addressing research problems beyond the scope and capability of any single country.

To build on this success and to enhance Europe’s role as a research powerhouse, the Union must:

Maintain ‘Excellence’ as the most important selection criterion across all of H2020 and into FP9;

Enhance the trustworthiness and transparency of the evaluation process;

Implement mechanisms to address the low success rates which are raising participation costs and reducing the attractiveness of the programme;

Address today’s global challenges which need the involvement of a wide variety of disciplines, including those that investigate humans, their culture, history, values and behaviour and which must also be reflected in research agendas;

Substantially increase the funding allocation to both the ERC and MSCA programmes;

Incentivise participation of all countries in the European Research Area (ERA) without compromising excellence in any way;

Invest in frontier-led and collaborative, cross-border research, and maximise its impact on the citizens’ social, economic and cultural well-being across all areas of H2020 and FP9;

Develop a more sophisticated and nuanced definition of ‘impact’ and an enriched and broadened definition of ‘innovation’. Apply the definitions consistently and appropriately, reflecting the differences between project types and durations;

Further support open science ensuring benefits for society;

Continue the process of simplification to reduce administrative barriers for all participants;

Our associations remain fully committed, individually and collectively, to engage in dialogue with the Commission on these and other issues:

The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, Coimbra Group, European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH), European Association of Research Managers and Administrators (EARMA), European University Association (EUA), League of European Research Universities (LERU), The Leiden Group